Sunday, December 23, 2007

2007: Top TV/Cinema ads

Via Adrian, tellyAds has compiled a top 20 list of TV ads featured on telly this year. WTF is that Cadbury monkey doing there on the top? This list really needs more surreality so I present MY list of wonderful 2007 TV/Cinema ads. Besides this blog needs more end of year lists, plus something to court the raving mad fanboys over here like the last time.

1. 'Playdoh' for Sony Bravia by Fallon LondonJust brilliant. Nothing like the previous Bravia ads 'Paint' and 'Balls', but Playdoh is equally as memorable and even more adorable. You just want to watch it again and again as hundreds of bunnies invade New York. And no, it isn't a rip-off of Kozyndan and this coming from an admirer. A 'making-of' video is available here.

2. 'Text Your Head Off' for T-Mobile Top-Up Friday by Saatchi and SaatchiDespite seeing this for like a thousandth time on TV it always catch my attention with its unique tune (The Whister by Claude VonStroke) and a bunch of headless goons walking around texting. It is simple and probably doesn't cost a lot to make.

3. 'Music Pieces' for Sony Walkman by Fallon / AcademyThe first ever 'monophonic' ad (whatever), the ad features a group of 128 musicians with varying forms of instruments playing one note each to build up and achieve a catchy melody. I showed this to Jennifer, a skilled pianist, and she found it amazing and immediately quipped "I want to buy that now", in reference to Sony's amazing NWZA series Walkman. A making off video is available here. The ad is directed by music video director Nick Gordon.

4. 'Shadows' for John Lewis by LoweWhen we first saw this ad, Jennifer quipped that 'this is John Lewis'. I also thought it was John Lewis but didn't want to believe it because I hardly see any John Lewis ad on TV, so I guessed it was for uhm... Argos, except that I doubt that they have the skills to create an ad that didn't suck. She was right after all and watching it again I can see why. A classy ad for classy people who shops at a classy department store.

5. 'Premium Lager Lobster' for Heineken by Red Brick RoadA man feels guilty to see a lobster killed at a restaurant imagines his naked wife having an affair with the crustacean in a bath. He eventually flipped and we see the lobster getting thrown into hot boiling water. He smirks on while his wife looks truly disappointed. Bloody hilarious, even if it is a bit crass.

6. 'The Entertainment' for Sony PlayStation 3 by TBWAThis surreal ad features a magician changing an ugly mutt into a well groomed poodle, two dancers and a plasticky man dodging bullets. I know some fanboys loathe it, but then again they are fanboys (they loathe everything). This ad is primarily targeted at none-gamers arty type and I believe it works to expand the brand whether negatively or positively. It is one of the few ads that I will watch if I catch it while channel surfing. It beats watching generic shooters ads by Microsoft and Nicole Kidman suicide ads.

7. 'Time to Dance' for Dolce & Gabbana JewelsThe first three quarter of the ad is very generic with a beautiful sexy female and handsome male in tacky D&G haute coulture wares rushing to meet each other, before it is revealed that the girl is meeting another female and the guy with another man. They make out. It is very homoerotic, in a subtle and classy way. The fact that this will rile up any homophobes happening to be watching TV when the ad plays just makes me enjoy the ad even more. There are other D&G ads with the same message here and here, but I don't remember ever seeing them on TV.

TV show ad:Okay this isn't strictly an advert but man was E4's cross channel promo for a repeat of Entrapment fucking funny. With Peter Dickson's voice over providing some of the most brilliant dry humour I can think off. I can't find a video of it online but from what I remember Peter Dickson's made various digs at Sean Connery's old age and Catherine Zeta-Jones' penchant for old males.

Worst ad:Apple's patronising Iphone ads which tends to ask how did we managed to survive all our lives without doing stuffs like surfing the web, watching videos and listening to music on our phones. Well d'uh, we have been doing that for years! On our phones! Just because your ridiculously priced 'gadget' can do that now doesn't we haven't been enjoying e-mails, web, videos and music on our phones for years now. And we have copy and paste, MMS and native apps.

3 comments:

I hadn't really seen those D&G ones, I do like the fact that they'll annoy certain kinds of people. Speaking of riling homophobes, it made me laugh when my local WHSmith moved the gay magazines next to the videogame ones. I could just imagine stereotypical nerdy homophobes being outraged and averting their gazes in a very obvious fashion.